National Park Service

Earlier this year, the National Park Service completed a Special Resource Study on Ste. Genevieve to assess the area’s historic elements for their “significance, suitability, and feasibility of the resources, and potential area boundaries.”

At the end of the study, NPS determined that parts of Ste. Genevieve are eligible for inclusion in the national park system. It recommended a small NPS-managed unit and a large area affiliated with NPS for preservation.

The National Park Service has been studying proposals to extend the Lewis and Clark National Historic Trail east from St. Louis and wants to know what the public thinks.

Yes, they mean EAST.

Of course, we in St. Louis know that Meriwether Lewis and William Clark headed WEST from these parts in May 1804 to explore President Thomas Jefferson’s new hunk of real estate, the Louisiana Purchase.

The superintendent of the Jefferson National Expansion Memorial says the work to renovate the ground around the Gateway Arch could be an example for other national parks as they deal with the possibility of under-funding by the federal government.

August 25th marks the 100th birthday of the National Park Service. In observance of the anniversary, St. Louis on the Air talked with those who have had experience inside the parks about what exactly could be done to ensure the parks' sustainability (financial, environmental and otherwise) amid calls to privatize the parks.

The National Park Service has completed a multiyear study and is recommending that parts of Ste. Genevieve be included in the national park system. Before the land could become an NPS unit, either a law must be passed by Congress and signed by the president, or executive action must be taken by the president.

When climber Scott Briscoe was in high school, he got involved with the genre of physical activity known as “adventure sports.” You know: hiking, skiing, backpacking, kayaking, rock climbing, and the like. He loved these kinds of sports, but there was something missing from the experience — people who looked like him.

American mountaineer Conrad Anker is a surprisingly laid-back guy for someone who led the three-person team to the first-ever summit of the formidable Shark's Fin of Meru Peak (also starring in the doc that won a prestigious Audience Award at Sundance last year). He was also the man who found the body of climber George Mallory on his first summit of Mt. Everest.

St. Louis, the Gateway City, is also known worldwide as the "Gateway to the West." But before the federal government erected the Gateway Arch 50 years ago this week, some historians say that Kansas City had a strong claim to the title.

Originally published in St. Louis Globe-Democrat / Courtesy St. Louis Mercantile Library

For 50 years, the Gateway Arch has drawn visitors from around the world to downtown St. Louis. From presidents and pop stars, to school kids and church groups, millions of people each year have come to marvel at the monument. But exactly how many people have visited in five decades? That depends on how they’re counted.

If you visit the new “Arch Perspectives” exhibit at the Missouri History Museum, take the time to read the story cards written by St. Louisans about the iconic riverfront monument. The personal thoughts range from joyful to angry:

Missouri senators passed a resolution to block the federal government's proposed changes in tourist restrictions at the Ozark National Scenic Riverways. The resolution passed on a 23-8 vote on Thursday and now heads to the House.

The National Park Service has released a report from a Chicago engineering firm today saying that the stains are merely cosmetic and that the Arch is "as sound today as the day it was built." (It was completed in 1965 - and for the history lovers out there, here's a gallery of that process).

The effort to free Reginald Clemons from Missouri's death row goes to a St. Louis courtroom starting today.

Clemons was one of four men convicted in the 1991 killings of two St. Louis-area sisters, 20-year-old Julie Kerry and 19-year-old Robin Kerry. Both girls, along with their visiting male cousin, were thrown from an abandoned Mississippi River bridge. The cousin, Thomas Cummins, survived.